The Melbourne Cinémathèque & ACMI present
The Female Closet
When
Wed 2 Nov 2022
Hammer’s fascinating collage of archival photographs, home movies and interviews explores the lesbian histories of women artists across the 20th century: American photographer Alice Austen, German Dada collagist Hannah Höch, and contemporary painter Nicole Eisenman. A careful examination of the museum as “closet”, and a thoughtful lesson on the importance of creating and archiving feminist artwork. Followed by Maya Deren’s Sink (2011) and A Horse is Not a Metaphor (2008), two late Hammer films that reflect on and revise concepts around death and cultural history and were both recipients of the Teddy Award for best short LGBTQI+ film at the Berlinale.
Also screening on Wed 2 November
Program
Queering the Archive: The Cinema of Barbara Hammer (Wed 26 Oct – Wed 2 Nov)
Nitrate Kisses (1992) – Wed 26 Oct, 7pm
Superdykes! The early films of Barbara Hammer (1974–76) – Wed 26 Oct, 8.35pm
History Lessons (2000) – Wed 26 Oct, 9.25pm
Projecting Light and Bending Time: Barbara Hammer in the 1980s (1982–83) – Wed 2 Nov, 7pm
The Female Closet (1998) – Wed 2 Nov, 8.05pm
About the program
Queering the Archive: The Cinema of Barbara Hammer (Wed 26 Oct – Wed 2 Nov)
Over a career spanning 50 years and more than 80 moving-image works, American filmmaker and visual artist Barbara Hammer (1939–2019) initiated a new kind of cinema made from a distinctively female and lesbian perspective, challenging the assumptions of mainstream culture and opening a discourse for marginalised groups in society. Her personal and experimental films sought to inspire social change and make largely invisible bodies, images and histories seen.
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About Melbourne Cinémathèque
Australia's longest-running film society, Melbourne Cinémathèque screens significant works of international cinema in the medium they were created, the way they would have originally screened.
Melbourne Cinémathèque is self-administered, volunteer-run, not-for-profit and membership-driven.
